Police promise new approach to kids doing crime
Taking note of recent statistics showing minors doing a growing number of violent crimes, Laval and Longueuil police are promising a new approach involving, among other things, targeting those who are recruiting minors.
Montreal’s organized crime commandant talks more about making all of society aware of the risk. Francis Renaud says “À 14-15 ans, en pleine nuit, errer à Montréal, en raison d’un contrat accepté sur les réseaux sociaux, ce n’est pas normal.” But these “job offers” come to kids via social media, and must often be taken up by kids whose parents are too overworked or otherwise distracted to pay attention to what their kid is doing on his phone.
jeather 12:29 on 2026-01-03 Permalink
Also, teens are really good at hiding stuff and are, as a group, dedicated to figuring out new ways to get past rules and technology.
Kate 13:34 on 2026-01-03 Permalink
I wonder whether they think of warning parents to ask questions if their high school kid suddenly has new clothes or electronics that they shouldn’t have been able to afford.
jeather 15:23 on 2026-01-03 Permalink
Are these parents who are immigrants, don’t speak great French, and rely on their kids to translate because we all know the schools and police won’t help communities in other languages? I know something similar is happening in Sweden, where children are also not easily held criminally responsible, and the gangs look for immigrants and children in group homes as easier marks (though they also will recruit anyone). This is not because immigrants or children in group homes are more criminal, it’s because — and this will sound familiar — there is increased inequality, young boys in particular are failing at school, unemployment is high where they live, etc.
Kate 11:04 on 2026-01-04 Permalink
jeather, that’s good analysis.
Joey 15:47 on 2026-01-04 Permalink
+1 jeather
Do I have the right? The decline of the Mafia in Montreal created a vacuum that lots of different criminal groups are trying to fill. These gangs are diverse in lots of ways – ethnic composition, linguistic background, international connections to organized crime, ‘professionalism,’ etc. They all seem to have figured out that if they hire kids to do most of their street crime, assuming that the kids who get caught will either be too scared of retribution from their gang to flip – or not scared enough of the relatively light sentences we give to children to cooperate with police (plus these gangs have a strong presence in the prison system, which would further dissuade any kind of cooperation).
The interventions the cops are describing here all seem fine – it takes a village, yada yada – but it seems to me there are two ways to make a real dent here: significantly increase the penal structure for kids (fat chance) or actually dismantle organized crime (fat chance part two). Is it fair to assume things won’t improve until the mob war ends and there’s a dominant criminal player like in the good old days? So much of the street violence described here seems to be not much more than turf battles for protection money.
Tim S. 18:01 on 2026-01-04 Permalink
Option 3) Meaningful regulation of social media
Yes, I know it won’t solve all problems, but it’s remarkable how it isn’t even discussed as an option.
MarcG 08:55 on 2026-01-05 Permalink
Curious to see how it plays out in Australia
Ian 20:57 on 2026-01-05 Permalink
We all know how obedient teens are and completely unaware of how the internet works & can be manipulated, I am sure tAustralia’s legislation will work 100% as intended.
In other news, streaming killed the golden goose and content/ signal piracy is back but whatevs, YOU WOULDN’T DOWNLOAD A CAR haha